House of the Week 11/5/21
MUNDANE MYSTERIES: What Is A Placebo?
When people heard the word “PLACEBO” back in the 1200s, there were no sugar pills or clinical trials. Actually, “placebo” had nothing at all to do with medicine back then. In reality, for members of the Roman Catholic Church (which was most folks back in those days), “placebo” would more likely have made them think about both God & death.
In Latin, “placebo” means “I will please”. “Placebo” was actually the very first word at the beginning of the “Vespers” portion of an evening prayer Catholics recited for folks who’d died, called the “Office for the Dead”. (FYI: The whole line was “I will please the Lord in the land of the living.”) It wasn’t long before folks were just saying the word “placebo” to refer to the prayer as a whole.
By the 1300s, though, placebo had taken on a secondary definition that, while different, stemmed from its original Latin meaning. Basically, at that time if you would’ve said someone was singing, making, or playing “placebo”, that would’ve implied that they were going way over-the-top the flatter someone else. Some folks would even just cut to the quick & call a person a “placebo” outright. Which, in that context, meant “a flatterer, sycophant, or parasite” according the Oxford English Dictionary.
It makes sense, then, that “placebo”, that flattery used to make someone feel good regardless of the truth, ultimately ended up in the world of medicine. It was in the 1700s that “placebo” came to define any drug or treatment intended to make someone feel better, even if it had no medical efficacy whatsoever. The phrase “placebo effect”, however, didn’t become common until a little while later, in the early 20th century.
The 1900s also saw the genesis of placebo’s evil twin, “nocebo”, which is Latin for “I will harm”. Literally the exact opposite of “placebo”, a medicinal “nocebo” is a worthless treatment that causes a patient to feel worse somehow. Thankfully, though, “nocebo” just hasn’t caught on in the same way “placebo” has. I wonder why? I mean…call me crazy, but maybe it’s because most people prefer to feel good instead of bad or worse. An off-the-wall suggestion, I know. But hey…at least now, hopefully, you feel good knowing where placebo came from & what it means today.
Now…wanna feel good about helping solve another Mundane Mystery in the near future? Message me with your question on my socials (@AndyWebbRadioVoice), or shoot me an email at [email protected].
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Wake Up Crew Highlights: November 3, 2021
House of the Week 10/29/21
MUNDANE MYSTERIES: What Is A Nor’Easter?
Whenever a forecaster says anything about a pending “nor’easter” during a weather report, stores start selling out of batteries, milk, and bread. For a lot of folks, nor’easter basically means “a really big storm”. And that’s not wrong, since nor’easters have earned their bad-boy reputation. But what makes a really big storm a nor’easter?
According to the National Weather Service, nor’easters occur on the East Coast of the U.S. People have been using the term “nor’easter” since at least the 19th century, but that doesn’t just refer to the area where they hit. It actually refers to where the wind comes from. When warm air out of the Southwest meets cold air moving south out of the polar region of Canada, it creates a strong wind called a “polar jet stream” which then moves east across our continent.
Meanwhile, the warm, powerful current known as the Gulf Stream is flowing up the East Coast, heating both the water & air above it along the way. Whenever that warm northeasterly air collides with the east-moving polar jet stream, the temperature difference between them creates a low-pressure system, which forms precipitation. It usually happens between Georgia & New Jersey, and the associated wind cyclone gains strength as it shifts farther north. Where you might be could either be pelted with rain or blanketed in snow, depending on how cold it may be. For instance, folks in Boston might be shoveling their driveways while, at the same time, people in Baltimore are dealing with flooded streets.
Nor’easters look very similar to hurricanes from above, but they’re not the same. The word hurricane refers to a specific sort of cyclone, one that forms in the the Atlantic Ocean’s tropical waters. Those warm waters can heat up the air above & form storm clouds that can eventually become a hurricane if & when it collides with warm air moving westward from Africa.
So, if you’re ever unsure whether bad weather headed your way is a hurricane or a nor’easter, you can always just call it “a really big storm”.
Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Send me a message via social media (@AndyWebbRadioVoice), or shoot me an email at [email protected].
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